Club Sweep All Before Them

By now you surely already know that Club have finished the season on a high, sweeping aside DEA Tigers (22-7 two weeks ago) and Kowloon (25-3 last weekend) to claim the Division One champion's crown by some distance. The picture above captures the early stages of Club's celebrations after their convincing victory over a physical but somewhat one-dimensional Kowloon side in the pouring rain at HKFC. Dragons are also Division Two champs after dispatching Scorps 57-7 two weeks ago. Furthermore, Select still have the chance to complete a treble for HKFC by winning Division Three. Club and Drags also have the chance to claim further silverware in their respective knock-out competitions beginning next weekend, in which Drags will be matched up with Division One sides Causeway Bay and Kowloon.

HKFC set out to win Divisions One, Two and Three, knowing we had the players and the talent, but also realising we would - especially in Division One - have to find a much greater degree of cohesiveness and, above all, mental toughness. Club demonstrated these qualities in spades, pulling off some real landmarks (principally beating Valley on three consecutive occasions) on their way to a richly deserved championship. They also bounced back from a second (and this time legitimate) defeat at the hands of Abderdeen to finish the season playing some of their best rugby yet. Coach Quinton Wrigley has been nothing if not single-minded in his focus on victory this season, but his dedication and ruthlessness in pursuing his goals, well, maybe we could call it pragmatism, have certainly paid off. Everyone at HKFC should salute him for delivering.

Various players to come into the Club squad this season have clearly made a tremendous difference. The paradigm of consistency, Tim Edgar, has completed a remarkable but entirely deserved rise from Bulls to Club, via Scorps, and now finds himself in the probably unexpected position of being the side's main line-out jumper. The arrival of the McKee brothers, Kris Marin and Pat Foreman, as well as the emergence of James Kibble as an outside half and Angus Washington as a Club player, have been critical. Club also needed their core of established players from previous seasons to be consistent, and they did not disappoint. Pete Spizzirri, Tom Cameron and Nigel Hobler were clearly the outstanding front row in the division, Nigel D'Acre was as classy as ever, Richard Rouse was typically direct and uncompromising in carrying the ball and the wingers Andrew Chambers and Dan Parr are lethal finishers. I even saw Dan go into a ruck the other day...

It's probably fair to say that Club have depended at critical times on players stepping up from a very high quality Drags squad this season. Players like Cowhead, Callum Nieto, Jared Smith, Rupert "Churchy" Clark and Chris Howard have all relished the opportunity to play up and will continue to exert healthy pressure on the first teamers. Many of these excellent players, plus blokes like Steve Matthew, are really caught between two teams. This is a tough situation for them but a very positive one for the Club as a whole: it means Club have a big pool of highly competent, theoretically match-fit players to draw on when needed. And the influx of players to, and competition for places in, the Club side has meant Drags have been able to field a team of near-first grade quality at many times.

Drags themselves had an exceptional season, although many will sadly remember the narrow 17-12 loss to the PLA in Guangzhou more than the team's long unbroken string of victories. Ever-knackered-looking Ramsay Carter and evergreen Phil Reid's boys will probably have another chance to go for the perfect season next year and avenge that defeat in China. However, it Drags were to win the knockout cup, then some people might begin to believe they deserve another crack at Division One...

So let's press on, have Club and Drags win their knockouts and see Select home as champs too.

In the meantime...from the most recent Club v DEA game...

For your viewing pleasure:

Tries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF67U3nOhLM
Drop goal attempts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyVmvXP_8T4
Hits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KscPCX_2dsY

All the best

Harps

Sound familiar?

Guys

Apologies for the lack of Blogging. There will be much, much more to come on a stunning finale to the season and - yes! - the rightful crowning of Club as Division One champs and Drags' victory in the Division Two. Also another Meet the Old Boys coming up, if anyone is interested.

For the meantime, does this remind you of anyone we know?

From The Guardian

For here was a remake of a favourite old movie, a film noir, to be sure, starring Mark Regan as the English agent provocateur, a role made famous by Brian Moore. While the flower of French youth attempted to run the ball from inside their own 22 and to make the definitive announcement of the arrival of a new era, the 36-year-old Bristol hooker was getting up to all the tricks the home side hate and fear when England come to town.
In particular he was ensuring that every time England were about to take a lineout in the first half, their hosts were made to wait. The dark blue shirts would be standing in line, growing increasingly fretful as Regan engaged his fellow forwards in a lengthy conference about 20 metres away. Then, having completed their agenda, they would march slowly towards their opponents. As a contribution to the spectacle, it was an example of wanton destruction, not to say rotten etiquette. As a means of teasing out the hidden anxieties of the inexperienced and highly-strung French, it was devilishly effective.
The fact England fared so poorly in the ensuing lineouts mattered not at all. Regan could overthrow and underthrow and generally hand possession to the home side with astonishing abandon but the necessary damage to the French composure had already been done. Their continuity had been disrupted to such effect that they were never able to achieve the momentum to match their noble ambitions.
Although Marc Lièvremont, their young coach, attempted to suppress his true feelings, eventually sheer exasperation got the better of him. "The English scrum was certainly very strong," he said, "although I didn't have the feeling that they were dominant. But I didn't appreciate the attitude of the English hooker. He really wasn't playing within the spirit of the game. At times it was ludicrous and grotesque. I know that sometimes you have to be pragmatic but this ..."
Invited to expand, Lièvremont poured all the evening's frustrations into a handful of terse, sardonic sentences. "He was playing a kind of anti-rugby. It was like a show, using up a minute before taking each throw. He was provocative. A clown. But that doesn't undermine the respect I have for the England team or for the fact that they thoroughly deserved their victory."
Brian Ashton initially refused to rise to the bait. "I can't comment on what other coaches say," he said. Asked if he would ever call an opposing player a clown, he remained deadpan. "I think I'm on record as saying I've got the utmost respect for every single player in the world who pulls on an international rugby jersey, because it's an incredibly difficult thing to achieve."
Eventually, however, he was persuaded to give his assessment of Regan. "He's an outstanding international hooker, he's an outstanding scrummager, he's a good scrapper in the nicest sense if the word, and a great bloke who the other guys like playing with."
Regan lapped it up, including the storm of jeers as he was prudently withdrawn in the 48th minute, having been whistled for raining blows on Lionel Faure, who was tugging his jersey in a maul. The resulting penalty brought France within three points. A minute or two earlier Regan had gone unpunished for a sneaky obstruction as the 19-year-old Morgan Parra retrieved the dead ball for a French lineout.
"To get booed off like that is a massive compliment," Regan said. "The whole of France hated me. You come here and you've got to get under their skin somehow or they'll get under yours. I'm selected to do a job. It irritates them and it puts them off their game. Brian Moore always did it and I'm following in his footsteps. We had to get back to the World Cup, getting horrible and arrogant, because we've been lacking that edge."

Knocking on Heaven's Door

Life has returned to normal. Chinese New Year's been and gone. Skiing/golfing/lying on a beach/boozing is done and dusted and we're back to rugby weekends. You know what that means. Q will wear a perpetual frown. Tim Griffin will get yellow-carded (well, he would if he was playing). The Sequins will be in their corner, sadly reflecting on how the game has changed and ordering another beer. PT McGee will shout mild comments of gentle encouragement from the stands.

And what a day it could (should) be. Club can make their Division One title safe by despatching DEA. Drags face a battle royale with Scorps, but will be crowned Division Two champions if they triumph. Should Select win heavily against Kowloon Pussies, they stay in with a shout in Division Three. Indeed, Club increasingly resembles Ancient Rome in its pomp - every continent (for that read division) fears the force of our arms. And then it's Andy Malbon's Stag, and Miss Kowloon...and Saturday night.

The stakes are high, though. Will it be veni, vidi, vici and Cluba Victa or will those damned Barbarians come and sack the Colisseum in Sports Road? Club (and I mean the 1s now) are tantalisingly close to victory, but DEA will sense the opportunity to really spoil the party. There will be no room for hubris and complacency will be fatal. The same applies to Drags. Form goes out of the window in Club Derbies. If Club and Drags want to win the Laurel Wreath and ascend into elysium as champions, then they will have to play like champions, by Jupiter. And that, I promise you, is as far as I will stretch the Roman analogy. We who are about to play salute you!

See you at the Club.
Harps

Teams below...

CBRE Club v DEA Tigers
HKFC, Saturday 16 February, 5.30pm

1. Pete Spizzirri
2. Tom Cameron
3. Nigel Hobler
4. Angus Washington
5. Steve Matthew
6. Tim Edgar
7. Jared Smith (AQ)
8. Nathan Johnson (N)

9. Peter McKee (N)
10. Pat Foreman (N)
11. Dan Parr
12. Nigel D'Acre
13. Richard Rouse
14. Andrew Chambers
15. Mike McKee (AQ)

Bench

Adam Harper
Chris Howard
Dean Finnegan
Phil Reid
James Kibble
Junior Naylor
Callum Nieto
Tim Robinson
Adam Raby (AQ)
Ed Johnson
Colin Begg (AQ)

CBRE Club Dragons v CBRE Club Scorpions
HKFC, Saturday 16 February, 4pm

1. Adam Harper
2. Duncan Robertson
3. Gary
4. Chris Howard
5. Ramsay Carter (C)
6. TBA/Andrew Corkery
7. Marcus
8. Dean Finnegan

9. Phil Reid
10. Junior Naylor / James Kibble
11. Callum Nieto
12. Robin Bredbury
13. Tibbett
14. Raby
15. Ed Johnson

Bench

Junior Naylor / James Kibble
Richard Gallagher

Support Michael Russell, running for EB research

From Michael Russell

Dear All,

As you may or may not know my 22 month old daughter Isabella was born with the genetic skin blistering condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). EB is a devastating and often fatal disorder, where the skin breaks at the slightest touch, causing painful open blisters and wounds. Bella suffers from EB Simplex which primarily affects the outer most layer of the skin only and is thankfully not fatal. See Isabella on DebRA's web site:
http://www.debra.org.uk/fundraising/events/sporting/racingtheplanetvietnam.htm

To raise money for research into EB, two work colleagues (Jenny Hill and Jason Parry) and I have signed up to compete in an ultra-marathon adventure race, ’Racing the Planet - Vietnam‘, which will take place from the 18th to the 23rd of February 2008 in the remote mountains of northwest Vietnam.

Racing the Planet - Vietnam is a self-supported foot race over 250 kilometres (150 miles) of north-western Vietnam. The race consists of six stages over six days, with distances of between 20 and 120 kilometres (10- 60 miles) per stage. Competitors are required to be fully self-supported throughout the event and must carry all their own food and gear, including a one-man tent and clothing, which they will need to complete the 250 kilometre course. Information on the Racing the Planet event can be found at the following site: http://www.4deserts.com/beyond/vietnam/.

While laughing at the thought of me doing this 250km race, please take a couple of minutes to logon to the link below to sponsor me in support of DebRA. Anything you can give is greatly appreciated.

http://www.justgiving.com/RTP-Vietnam

Thank you.

Mick

PS - I may as well get these questions out of the way now.

1. Yes, I am serious.
2. Even though I am approaching 40, bald and pudgy around the middle, I haven't yet purchased a sports car and I am still happily married, therefore, I am not having a mid life crisis.

Charlie don't Surf...

And Club don't travel. That at least would seem to be the conclusion to be drawn from the last round of league games which happened, ah, the weekend before last. As I've said before, there's nothing quite like real time news.

What can I say? It's bl*ody disappointing, rather like England losing to Wales. Both Club and Drags went down by narrow margins at, respectively, Aberdeen and the PLA in Guangzhou. But in case anyone from our rivals is reading this: we are facing up. Yes, we lost. Yes, it hurts. And, yes, we'll be back stronger and hungrier in the Year of the Rat.

A special mention is due to Scorps here, who bucked the trend by putting one over their old rabbits Valley. Details of that one and the Club game are a bit thin (Giles Disney seems to have been overcome by modesty and Cookie by embarrassment), but I can tell you what mattered about the Drags game because I was there in the frozen wastes of Red China.

Firstly, Drags fronted up like trojans for an incredibly tough, physical game. We went toe to toe with the PLA and played, in many ways, better than we have all season. We rose to the occasion in that respect and deserved an early 5-0 lead through Peyton Burnett. But our lineout was shocking and our scrum inconsistent (forward on their ball, often back on ours). PLA took their opportunities, scored three tries, and defended welll when we threw everything we had at them in surge after surge in the second half. Richard Gallagher crashed over late in the game to make it 12-19 but the referee blew his whistle stright afterwards and Drags' dream of an unbeaten season was over.

It was a gutting experience, the more so because we had played harder and with more commitment than in any game during the long winning streak. To be honest, though, our set piece let us down and we didn't help ourselves by continually carping at the referee, who, it must sadly be said, was well below par.

Needless to say, a veritable mountain of grub from the Scottish restaurant and a rice-wine fuelled fines session on the train going back helped to ease the pain. This was masterminded by Junior Naylor wearing a jester's hat that increased his height by approximately one third and which he earned for taking the unusual step of hitting a PLA guy in the face with the ball as he attempted a tackle.

So, Club and Drags must raise their games after the Lunar New Year break in order to go on and earn the titles they deserve. For Drags, there is the added incentive of proving they are once again ready for Division One rugby by winning a four-way cup competition with PLA and the two bottom teams from the first grade.

In the meantime, enjoy the break. I'm off to Cambodia with Nick James, Nieto and Nazer....Lord help us!

Kung hei fat choy!
Harps
 

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